Santorum stumps in New Hampshire

'I was an earmarker,' he confides on presidential trail.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., listens as he is introduced before… (AP photo )

November 29, 2010|By Colby Itkowitz, CALL WASHINGTON BUREAU

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who is becoming less and less coy about his 2012 presidential aspirations, admitted during a luncheon Monday that he was once an ardent earmarker, but now believes they should be banned.

"I feel like I'm at an AA meeting, " Santorum told a room of local Rotary Club members. "Hi, I'm Rick, and I was an earmarker."

Santorum, a Republican, represented Pennsylvania for 12 years before being ousted by Democrat Bob Casey in 2006. Like many lawmakers, Santorum secured federal funding for projects back home to fulfill local wants. But such earmarks are under increasing fire because of the national debt and fears of government run wild.

The early conversation in New Hampshire, a state that allows presidential hopefuls to test the political waters months (and in this case years) before its first primary election, reflects the immediacy of issues back in Washington, D.C.

Most Republicans, and some Democrats, in Congress today want to get rid of the earmarking process altogether, and Santorum says he'd support that. A vote is expected on Capitol Hill this week.

"I think the American public has spoken and they don't want Congress doing it," Santorum told his New Hampshire audience. "And my feeling is that if the American people believe that this is an element of whether we can trust you or not, we have to show that we want their trust, so I'm absolutely for banning earmarks."

A month ago during a visit in South Carolina, also an early primary state, Santorum took a different tone, saying the U.S. Constitution grants members of Congress the right to appropriate federal funding. Defenders of federal earmarks often say they know their districts better than federal bureaucrats do.

Santorum's visit to New Hampshire this week is his seventh. He is holding public and private meetings with local leaders as he attempts to raise his profile ahead of other big Republican names like Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney touching down in the state.

Santorum also has been to Iowa, the first state to select its presidential nominees through a caucus.

Here in New Hampshire, Santorum's listeners also asked him about the nation's debt and how he would specifically deal with it. Again toeing the Republican line, he attacked the Democrats' health care law.

"First, get rid of Obamacare," Santorum said. "Repeal it. There is nothing, nothing there that is worth saving, in my opinion."

Most calls for repealing the law exclude provisions such as stopping insurers from rejecting clients because of pre-existing conditions or allowing children to stay on their parents' plan until they are 26 years old. Polls show wide support for those provisions. Voters do not like the law's mandate that everyone must buy insurance.

Asked for clarification at an evening event, Santorum stood by his earlier remarks. He said the pre-existing conditions clause in the law doesn't work because it allows people to wait until they get sick to buy insurance, which he said would cause insurance premiums to "skyrocket."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded the health reform adopted by Congress will pay for itself over 10 years.